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BIID – A Diagnosis Criteria
Written by Sophie on Saturday, January 3, 2009
I’ve pulled this from Wikipedia on tonight’s regular "stay up way later than I should and depress myself by reading stuff related to BIID" adventure. You can read the full article here. As you can probably guess I’m going through a real rough patch with my transabledness lately and it is just killing me that there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.
I decided a couple of nights ago that I’m telling my GP (General Practitioner, AKA family doctor) that I’m transabled. I’m scared to death about it and I’m trying to get it done before I chicken out again. I know my GP probably won’t be able to do anything to help me but he could possibly refer me on to someone who can. I know that surgery isn’t likely to ever become available in my lifetime, but if it ever did I would be looked more favourably upon if they saw I had tried to seek medical help before surgery was there.
Anyway, in order to help myself prepare I thought I’d try and find stories online of how GID sufferers told their doctors how they felt… So far no luck. If anyone knows of any stories I would more than welcome that they link the page to me or something. I know that once I tell my doctor there will be no turning back and I really really really want to do this right.
I had a glance over the GID page on wikipedia.org and I found the following bit of text:
The current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has five criteria that must be met before a diagnosis of gender identity disorder (302.85) can be given:
- There must be evidence of a strong and persistent cross-gender identification.
- This cross-gender identification must not merely be a desire for any perceived cultural advantages of being the other sex.
- There must also be evidence of persistent discomfort about one’s assigned sex or a sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex.
- The individual must not have a concurrent physical intersex condition (e.g., androgen insensitivity syndrome or congenital adrenal hyperplasia).
- There must be evidence of clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
It’s amazing how much this could be applied to a BIID diagnosis.
- I have always felt I was meant to be a T12 complete paraplegic as far back as I can remember. A large majority of BIID sufferers have similar memories and experiences in regards to this.
- I do not feel I’m meant to be a paraplegic in order to gain extra attention, benefits or resources. I would rather be a paraplegic in my home at my computer than be out in the world able bodied but getting the attention that a disabled person would get (hope that made sense).
- I spend many late nights up and in pain because I am in the wrong body. No matter what I tell myself, no matter how much I try to ignore it I always have that nagging feeling inside of me that I’m not who I’m meant to be and it hurts.
- I am not a wheelchair fetishist or devotee (some BIID sufferers are also devotees but this is totally separate to BIID).
- I am unable to make friends or take part in the real world after 23 years of trying to pretend I’m not transabled. I suffer from depression on and off and my parents almost disowned me when I tried to tell them I’m transabled. I feel guilt and shame when I am constantly confronted with situations that reinforce that I’m meant to be a paraplegic. I am currently unemployed due to physical problems which are made worse by my inability to interact with the world.
I may seem like I’m grasping at straws bringing up the GID/BIID similarities again but in a way I thought it was bizarre that I could identify with all those diagnosis criteria.
Tags: BIID, Depression, Paraplegic, Transabled, Wheelchair
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2 Comments
Cath is right. Even with the good experience I had with my GP, I still had to do some explaining since she had not heard of BIID. That shouldn’t be a problem since I know you are very knowledgable, Sophie. Remember to present yourself with self confidence about it and don’t allow yourself to be bullied (some physicians are bullies).
There are indeed a lot of similarities between GID and BIID. It seems like a useful exercise to do as you have done, to look at diagnostic criteria for GID to see how it would apply to one’s BIID.
I feel fortunate not to have had the angst of telling my parents. I am thirty years older than you, Sophie, so my parents had died before I came out. I don’t think it would have gone well. My father tried to discourage me from playing with my neighbourhood friend who had spina bifida, and not once did he ever come with the family to visit my paraplegic aunt.
I’ll be thinking of you, Sophie, and hoping all goes well with your GP visit. I certainly look forward to reading about it.
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1 On 3 January, 2009, Cath said:
Hi Sophie
My experience of GPs is that you’ll be doing well if yours has even the faintest idea what you are talking about. Not that this should put you off telling him – he needs to be educated – just that you might have to be prepared for a lot of explaining.
Good Luck to you and let us know how it goes.